One of Australia’s largest exporters of seaborne metallurgical coal operates coal mines in Central Queensland supplied by fresh water extracted from borefields, rivers and dams. It owns and operates hundreds of kilometers of pipelines, through which it moves tens of thousands of megalitres of fresh water per year to its own and competitors’ operations and to local mining communities. For monitoring raw water in the network, KROHNE Australia supplied 26 WATERFLUX 3070 C battery operated stand-alone water meters.

Access to a reliable source of water is an essential requirement for coal mines. Even those mines that do not wash their product through a preparation plant need significant quantities for dust management, drilling, human consumption and numerous other uses. The monitoring of water use to support mining operations in remote areas represents a significant challenge to all mineral companies operating in Australia as often the infrastructure and management systems provided by the company are also used to supply local communities and rural industries. Measurement and balancing of water flows can allow investigation and analysis into water management and substitutions. .An essential pre-requisite to gaining better understanding of water consumption is a more comprehensive water flow monitoring network.

As mechanical water meters require a high level of maintenance and have inaccuracies e.g. when measuring large variations in flow rates, the company chose KROHNE’s WATERFLUX 3070 C, a battery powered, maintenance-free electromagnetic water meter, to provide a reliable solution for the mine site’s, and communities’ remote water monitoring needs. The WATERFLUX 3070 has a unique flow sensor design with rectangular cross-section allowing for a significant reduction of magnetic field excitation. The coils are arranged so that a strong, homogeneous magnetic field is formed. The measurement is therefore independent of the flow profile and measurements are very stable. This results in a very good low flow performance and allows the operation without inlet and outlet runs. Further, the Rilsan® liner of the flow sensor is highly resistant to pressure or vacuum conditions, to corrosion and aging. An optional data logger and GSM module allows for remote meter reading and wireless transmission of measurement data and status information.